The present invention is directed to a shipping container, and more particularly to a container for shipping or packaging cut sheets of paper, which can be reused as a hanging file folder container after the sheets of paper have been removed.
The usefulness of the present invention will become easily apparent as we follow the life of cut sheets of paper. At the manufacturing facility, sheets of paper are cut from larger size paper rolls. A predetermined volume of the cut sheets of paper is packed with a sheet of wrapping paper. Several of these volumes of paper are packed into a carton for shipping. For a typical office use, 500 cut sheets are packed into a xe2x80x9creamxe2x80x9d, and ten reams are normally packaged in a container. The container is typically made of a corrugated fiber board or paper board material.
A business or home-office user normally purchases these boxes of cut paper, each typically containing ten reams. The cut sheets are taken from the container one ream at a time for use with office equipment, such as photocopiers, laser or ink-jet printers, and plain paper facsimile machines. Once all the reams of paper are exhausted, the container is usually discarded. It is not uncommon for a user, however, to remove all the reams from a container and stock them up in a convenience place, such as near a photocopy machine, etc. The discarded paper shipping boxes often become a significant part of the trash picked up at the end of the day, particularly in a office environment where the consumption of paper is high and a large number of boxes are purchased at one time.
As noted above, typically ten reams of cut paper are packed into a container. The dimensions of the most commonly used paper include 8.5xe2x80x3xc3x9711xe2x80x3 or 8.5xe2x80x3xc3x9714xe2x80x3. Currently, the industry practice is to provide a shipping container the interior volume of which is nearly identical to the overall volume of two five-ream stacks of paper placed side-by-side. As a result, the reams of paper are tightly packaged in a container, leaving almost no appreciable clearance between the container and the stacks of paper. This leads to significant problems in that it is very difficult to remove the reams without either causing damage to the paper or injuring a person""s fingers. In particular, the absence of a clearance between the container and the reams makes it nearly impossible to sufficiently grasp a ream about its perimeter, which remains in tight engagement with the container walls, to take it out therefrom. Many users simply dismantle the container by pulling outwardly the panels to gain easy access to the reams. This practice is, however, not desirable, time-consuming, and completely destroys the container leaving no alternative for its reuse other than to discard it.
A large number of the cut sheets purchased in an office or the like environment, become documents, such as letters, reports, faxes, etc., that must be stored or filed. A popular method of filing or grouping the documents includes using hanging file folders. Hanging file folders generally have a pair of metal or plastic rods, that support a folded fiber board material into which documents and the like are stored and organized. The rods have notched ends which are received on support rods within office furniture, such as a filing cabinet, desk drawer, and a portable hanging file folder box.
Hanging file folders, for example those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,494,161 to Herbst, U.S. Pat. No. 5,842,570 to Turnbull, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,887,782 to Mueller, are usually manufactured as flat corrugated boards with fold line, cut lines, and flaps and shipped in an unassembled state to the consumer, thus minimizing the transport costs. The consumers usually assemble these boards into a box by quickly folding panels in a certain sequence, although the instructions accompanying these boxes may recommend using an adhesive for a sturdier construction. Hanging file folder boxes assembled in such a fashion are usually less sturdier than the cartons (used for shipping cut-sheets of paper) which are assembled in the factory with industrial adhesives.
In a typical office or a small business, several containers of cut sheets of paper are purchased on a regular basis and the containers are discarded after the cut sheets are removed therefrom. It is not unusual or uncommon for the same office or small business to separately purchase large quantities of hanging file folders to organize, store and archive the documents.
Various other examples of shipping or related types of containers and packages, and hanging file folder boxes, and the like are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,910,411; 4,624,380; 4,844,262; 5,190,152; 5,193,701; 5,381,890; 5,622,309; 5,779,129; 5,794,770; 5,815,903; and 5,819,922.
There remains a need in the industry, however, for a container which, after shipping, for example, the cut paper, may be converted to a hanging file folder container.
The principal object of the present invention is to provide a shipping container which is reusable as a hanging file folder container.
An object of the present invention is to provide a shipping container which promotes recycling of fiber board containers that are otherwise discarded.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a shipping container which is environment-friendly in that it is recycled or reused as a storage box.
An additional object of the present invention is to provide a shipping container which is reusable usually in the same end-user location and eliminates waste and therefore significantly reduces the usage of landfills that are otherwise in short supply.
Yet an additional object of the present invention is to provide a shipping container which leads to significant cost reduction in that separate purchase of hanging file folder containers is eliminated.
Still yet an additional object of the present invention is to provide a shipping container which can be very easily and economically reused by converting it into a hanging file folder container. The conversion is fast and can be quickly done without any special skill or training.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a shipping container which includes a clearance, preferably between two opposed side panels of the container and the articles, for example, paper, being shipped, thereby making it easy for a user to remove the articles from the container by inserting the hands in the clearance and grasping the articles.
In summary, the main object of the present invention is to provide a shipping container which can be reused as a hanging file folder container and therefore leads to significant cost savings and is environment and user-friendly.
In accordance with the present invention, a shipping container reusable as a hanging file folder container includes a base panel, first and second laterally spaced side panels extending upwardly from the base panel, and third and fourth laterally spaced side panels extending upwardly from the base panel and extending between the first and second side panels. Each of the first, second, third and fourth panel includes inside and outside surfaces and a top edge portion, and together define an interior recess of the container. A first spacer member removably engages one of the first, second, third and fourth panels. The first spacer member has a predetermined width to maintain a clearance between one of the first, second, third and fourth panels and an article being shipped in the container. The first spacer member includes a channel for engaging the top edge portion of one of the panels. The shipping container may be converted to a hanging file folder container by mounting one, and preferably two spacer members over the corresponding top edge portions of two opposite panels and suspending hanging file folders therebetween.